Martin Slumbers could not have witnessed greater theater than his first British Open as head of the R&A, the record duel between Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson at Royal Troon.
His only concern in 2016 was the public.
“I walked around quite a bit and it was a little empty,” Slumbers, 64, said in a telephone interview this week as he ends nearly a decade as CEO. “You know, it’s a big place. It could certainly accommodate many more.
Attendance on Ayrshire routes in Scotland was around 173,000.
The final Open for Slumbers, which retires at the end of the year, was also held at Royal Troon this summer when Xander Schauffele battled rain and wind on Saturday to win his second major of the year.. Attendance for the week was 258,000.
This fulfilled what Slumbers wanted when he arrived at the R&A after a career in banking, with the first R&A chief having a business background. He brought more commercialization to golf’s oldest championship, with a focus on brand building and investment in the game.
His motto: “Large sport needs a large crowd. »
“Yes, some people would like to have three times the ticket prices and half the number of people so they can stand right next to the 18th green,” Slumbers said. “But the vast majority of people really like it. The energy that it creates, the noise that it creates, and the players really like it.
Slumbers has also expanded the R&A’s role in other championships, most merging with the Ladies Golf Union to add women to its portfolio of around 40 championships. This included running the Women’s British Open with title sponsor AIG, which helped the prize pool grow from $3 million in 2016 to $9.5 million this year.
The women took Links courses which welcome men. This included Muirfield, which for almost three centuries was a men’s only club. Slumbers had been in office for eight months at the R&A when in 2016 he removed Muirfield from the Open rotation, saying the event would not be held at a club that had no women.
Muirfield, which first hosted the Open in 1892, took another vote a year later and admitted women. It organized its first women’s British Open in 2022.
Slumbers was being considered for CEO when the R&A decided to have female members and said he would not have accepted the position if the members had not voted for it.
“We only represented men’s and men’s golf,” he said. “I have always believed that this role should aim to promote more women and girls in football. And the LGU was fortunate to need help, the opportunity to help them integrate into the R&A.
Slumbers considers this development “one of the cornerstones of my entire tenure.”
He was also optimistic about investment in the game, committing 200 million pounds (around $250 million) to the amateur game over a 10-year period. All the while, he protested increased purses in men’s soccer, especially as the sport was divided when Saudi money was behind the new LIV Golf League and the PGA Tour was trying to keep up .
Slumbers leaves with the game still divided, upset that the best in the world only meet four times a year in the majors.
“We need to focus on getting some stability,” Slumbers said. “We also need to focus on the financial viability of golf. This is harming our sport. And more importantly, if we truly want to reverse the decline in interest, we need to stop talking about money and start talking about values in golf.
“All of this money-driven dialogue is extremely damaging, in my opinion, to both the perception and reputation of our sport, and is at the heart of why many people don’t watch golf.”
Slumbers had no immediate plans after leaving. Then again, he tried to retire ten years ago and wanted to do nothing but play golf until he said he was bored. That’s when he was recruited to become CEO of the R&A. And now ?
“I’m going to play golf,” he said, laughing.
Slumbers began the same year that Keith Pelley took over as European tour manager. Jay Monahan became PGA Tour commissioner and Fred Ridley became president of Augusta National in 2017, and Seth Waugh – with whom Slumbers worked at Deutsche Bank – became CEO of the PGA of America in 2018.
Ridley and Monahan remain among those five leaders.
Slumbers will be followed by Mark Darbon, the former CEO of Northampton Saints, a Premiership Rugby club.
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AP Golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
